Indian innovationist

Meet Anup Vijapur: The Rural Innovator Who Built A Road, A Cashew Nut Grading Machine And Wind Turbines For Trains.

Anup Vijapur stands out because of his passion towards social good. Empathy towards the marginalized was something Vijapur always felt and today he is an innovator who is working on some amazing projects that can simplify the lives of many farmers. 

His first milestone…

He was a mechanical Engineer but found his passion in Computer Science. It was during this, Vijapur’s efforts came into limelight when he constructed a road in a nearby village. In 2009, while returning from Hospet to Hubli, he noticed a stretch of road that was totally smudged, covered with mud and bred mosquitoes due to the stagnant dirty water
After raising a sum of Rs. 2,000 from generous funders in two days time, he managed to clear the blocked road and covered it with red soil to make it walk-able. But he was not happy with this. He clicked ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures of the road and presented them to a Municipality officer. A week later, he saw a new tar road under construction

Wind Turbines for Trains

His college project, which was focused on generating power from wind in a moving train, won him many awards. The idea stuck his mind during a train journey.
“I thought that if all the wind energy which is generated by moving trains can be put to use to create power, it would be great. I created one meter wide and two feet long wind turbines and a working prototype which functioned perfectly. I just could not get the permission to actually put it to use on trains due to a lot of legal formalities,” he says.

Cashew Nut grading machine

He joined Nanopix and got an opportunity to work on a cashew nut grading machine.
After some months of research, he came up with a groundbreaking technology that grades cashew nuts in seven different categories while the existing machines in the market can just grade in two or three categories. This is probably the first of its kind in the world that can grade around 70-75 kgs nuts per hour according to their size, colour, defects, etc.

A device to check the drowsiness of drivers.

Vijapur, along with founder of Nanopix, started working on a device that can check the drowsiness level of the driver by tracking his or her facial expressions. If found sleepy, the system will inform the back end and an immediate intervention can be done before it is too late.
In few months, he will also have few patented technologies under his name.

Thus, we congratulate Anup for his staggering innovations and wish him all the best for all his future projects.

Raja Mahendra Singh

Mr Manvendra Singh Gohil: India’s Gay Prince And Gay Activist

Manvendra Singh Gohil is the only known person of royal lineage in modern India to have publicly revealed that he is homosexual. But there is much more to the gay prince of India. Founder of Lakshya Trust, his contribution towards HIV/AIDS prevention among men who have sex with men (MSMs), and towards gay activism in India is praiseworthy.

In a candid interview with the gay prince, Manvendra reveals how the homosexual men are received in India and his own journey of ‘coming out’ He hails from a well-respected royal family in Gujarat and was disowned by his family after the disclosure. Nevertheless, he does not blame his parents; he however blames their ignorance and the education system.

He feels that educational institutions need to be sensitized as they are the future of India. When done in an organized manner, Manvendra is confident that the society’s attitude towards the homosexual men would change. He feels that his disclosure shattered one of the biggest myths that upper class people cannot be gay.

LAKSHYA TRUST

In a bid to work for the health and safety of positive people who are gay, Manvendra founded an organization called Lakshya Trust. Their main focus was HIV awareness. The motivation to start this arose from his role model Mr Ashok Row Kavi who introduced him to the gay world and started Humsafar Trust in India, a male sexual health NGO. It is he who inspired Lakshya, Gujarat’s first organisation by gay men for gay men.

Lakshya was started by a group of four friends to create a platform for the community to come together and discuss common issues and their solutions, whether it was police harassment, discrimination or marriage pressure. After working in this field for quite some time, they were approached by the government to work for HIV/AIDS prevention as a partner to work for gays.

The unique aspect of Lakshya is their involvement with senior gay men. Manvendra felt that old gay men who were unmarried or disowned and required support systems and help with health and medical issues. After working in this field for several years, they are now in the process of developing India’s first old age home for gays. Lakshya has a staff of 150 people – most of them are gay and are reaching out to the female partners of the gay community.

His final words to the community are

“You are gay. Be happy and proud of it – There is nothing wrong with it. It’s normal to be gay. Once people accept the reality, it would make things better for them and for their loved ones too”

We applaud Manvendra Singh for his commendable efforts towards the betterment of homosexual community. 

The Snake man of India

Mr. Vava Suresh: The Man Who Embraces, Loves And Enjoys The Company Of Snakes.

Suresh’s love for the reptiles was born when he was 12 when he captured a baby cobra and kept it hidden in his house to study his behaviour. Suresh is 40 now and has rescued over 30,000 snakes so far.

He quit his schooling to understand and rescue snakes. He not only works to preserve and rescue the species but also spreads awareness among people about snakes and their behaviour, and preserves their collected eggs until the hatching period.

He has dedicated his life towards capturing poisonous snakes from the human populated areas and then releasing them into their natural habitats. Even though he has no professional training in this field, Suresh, purely through his curiosity and love towards the reptiles, has become a “go to” man when it comes to snakes.

He does not use any equipment to capture the snakes, and mostly does it himself with his hands which have suffered various accidents and have survived 266 poisonous snake bites. He has rescued 17 King Cobras which is considered to be one of the most venomous and dangerous snakes in the world.

A dangerous Cobra bite cost him one of his fingers which he had to get surgically removed. His right palm had to be skin grafted after a snake bite in 2012. His body is considered to have developed sufficient antibodies against snake venoms after suffering various snake bites.

“Snakes have been a part of my life ever since childhood. I actually don’t know how I fell in love with them. As a child I had seen people brutally killing snakes. That instilled sympathy for the creature in my mind. At the same time, idols of serpents in temples made me feel that they have some divinity and should be protected,” Suresh says.

He receives around 15-20 calls every day from people to catch snakes in residential areas. Apart from King Cobras he has rescued over 7000 Indian cobras, 1600-1700 vipers and 150 kraits.

The Forest Department, after noticing his extra ordinary skills, offered him a government job in a snake park set up in Kottur forest area near Kattakada in Thiruvananthapuram. But Suresh declined the offer as he believed that he would not be able to help society the way he wanted to if he was employed.

Suresh also met Britain’s Prince Charles after he expressed his desire to meet Vava Suresh when he came to Kerala.

Thus, Suresh is by far the most renowned conservationist who with his penchant for snakes has charmed the world. 

The Man who planted the forests of Kerala

A Man Who Bought 32 Acres Of Land And Planted A Forest – All By Himself

Abdul Kareem of Kasargod in Kerala had a liking to ‘Kavu’, the sacred forests of Kerala, right from his childhood. He would frequently visit his wife’s house in Puliyankulam village and it was during such visits that he noticed the barren hillside land nearby. In 1977, he bought five acres of the land for Rs 3750. The peoplenearby and his family were not able to comprehend this and he became a laughing stock in the locality.
The property had only a single well that remained almost dry throughout the year. Since he had no other option,he would carry water in cans from outside sources on his two-wheeler. This continued for three years, at the end of which, nature started responding to his unrelenting efforts and the trees actually started growing.

The change was now to be seen – birds came in flocks and helped Kareem by bringing seeds of umpteen varieties and started setting their nests in this new haven. Soon other forms of life also appeared. The ecosystem was developing at a good pace. In the meanwhile, Kareem bought another 27 acres of land and planted trees all over the place with the new-found vigour, motivated by the fruits of his efforts.

One notable feature of Kareem’s forest is that Kareem never tried to interfere in its natural development once it started sustaining itself, rather he gamely prevented anything and everything that would interfere with the natural growth of his forest. There is no effort for intervention of any kind.

The forest has brought about amazing changes to the surroundings. The once dry well in the plot is now brimming with pure, fresh water. The underground water table in an area of about 10 kilometers has risen, it is said. The temperature inside the forest is markedly cooler than outside. Kareem has been living inside the forest since 1986, keeping constant vigil. Visitors are allowed inside for a few days, provided they comply with Kareem’s regulations. Plastic is banned inside the forest; so is the use of automobiles. Wild partying, loud noises – all are a strict no-no.

Kareem has resisted various offers to commercialize the forest and to turn it into a theme park. Recognition has come from various corners, including the Sahara Parivar award, Limca Books Person of the year and so on.

Still, one sincerely doubts whether this gem of a man has received the deserving attention from his homeland. However, for those who know him, the man who was once a laughing stock, has now grown colossal in stature, along with his creation – one that generations will cherish.

Why Silver is More Valuable than Gold

With gold selling for around 50 times the price of silver, you may be perplexed to hear me say that silver is more valuable than gold. It seems like an obvious contradiction. What I mean, exactly, is that silver has heavy demand by industry, while gold has limited demand, other than for jewelry. In terms of its necessity to a modern society, silver has the highest value and the greatest utility. An ounce of silver has more value to industries that must have it than does an ounce of gold. An opportunity exists because the current price doesn't reflect this fact.

For 60 years more silver has been consumed by industry than produced. That's the most bullish circumstance possible for a commodity. Silver is in much greater demand by industrial users worldwide than is gold. Yet gold sells for fifty times the price of silver.

For the past 60 years silver was dumped onto the market without much regard to price. The U.S. Government sold off inventory of five billion ounces. This silver has been used up by industry and is gone forever. A few years ago the U.S. Mint announced they would have to buy silver on the open market.

That's only part of the story. You may be shocked to learn that there's more gold around than silver. About five times more gold is documented in above-ground supplies than silver. Furthermore, there are less years of silver production remaining underground to be mined than gold. These powerful facts are not currently reflected in the price. However, some day they will be. That's why the opportunity for profit exists in silver like no other opportunity in history. Nothing in the world has the potential to multiply your net worth like silver.

IN DEMAND

Today, world silver inventories are at the lowest point in 200 years. All the known and recorded silver in commodity warehouses, and elsewhere, only comes to 250 million ounces, and most of that is tied up and unavailable. Industry requires over 900 million ounces each year. Mining and recycling fall short of providing the necessary silver.

Silver is the best conductor of electricity. Every computer, server, monitor, cell phone and switch must have silver. Lasers, satellites, high-tech weaponry and robotics, all require silver. Digital technology and telecommunications need silver. Around the house there's silver in every TV, washing machine, wall switch and refrigerator. Conductors, switches, contracts and fuses use silver because it does not corrode or cause overheating and fires. Silver is used heavily in photography and in prints. Meanwhile, new and exotic uses for silver are expanding.

A new double layer of silver on glass is sweeping the window market, as it reflects away almost 95% of the hot rays of the sun. A new electronic application for "smart tags" that are replacing bar codes could use significant quantities of silver.

Silver achieves the most brilliant polish of any metal and is the best reflector of light, allowing it to be used in mirrors and in coatings for glass, cellophane or metals. Chemical reactions can be significantly increased by adding silver. Approximately 700 tons of silver are in continuous use in the world's chemical industry for the production of plastics.

Batteries are now manufactured with silver alloys. Lead-free silver solder is used heavily for joining materials and producing leak-tight joints. Silver is also widely used in silk-screened circuit paths, membrane switches, electrically heated automobile windows, and adhesives. Silver has a variety of uses in pharmaceuticals. Silver sulfadiazine is the most powerful compound for burn treatment. Catheters impregnated with silver eliminate bacteria. Silver is increasingly being tapped for its bactericidal properties and water purification. In the face of all these industrial uses there is less silver available.

Here we have a vital material, known to all men for all time, literally disappearing before our eyes, both above and below ground. It is a material upon which modern life and rising standards of living are dependent. It is beyond indispensable, it is a miracle metal.

SILVER BUBBLE

The stock bubble and the real estate bubble better move over, because I'm going to tell you about a bubble that will be talked about for as long as mankind exists; the silver bubble. At the epicenter of reasons for launching silver to the heavens is the coming end of artificially depressed silver prices. There is no legitimate free market explanation for such extremely depressed prices in the face of greater demand and depleted world inventories.

For 20 years, there has been an outsized silver short position on New York's Commodity Exchange, Inc. (COMEX). This paper short position has been unique, in that no other commodity has ever before had a short position larger than its world production and world known inventories. This accounts for why silver has been depressed in price. But shorting is a two way street. While the shorts have had their way with the price of silver for a long time, when those shorts are brought back or covered, the price effect of shorting is reversed and it becomes bullish.

You can't keep the price of anything artificially depressed for decades and not expect violent counter moves when the artificial restraint is suddenly removed. So it is logical to assume that, when the silver price suppression ends, we will get a severe jolt to the upside. Silver must move to a price point where supply and demand balance. Considering how long silver has been kept depressed, it will take an extremely high price to accomplish this balance. It is very possible that, in the inevitable move to a market equilibrium price, we could overshoot dramatically to the upside. A short covering panic appears unavoidable at some point, because of the large size of the short position. That could create triple digit silver all by itself. Silver is a prime candidate for a future price explosion that is historic and worldwide in scope. The fundamentals of silver are so bullish and so compelling that I couldn't make them up if I tried.

INDUSTRIAL USER PANIC

The amount of silver used in each industrial application, while vital to the finished item, is a tiny percentage of the product's total cost. This means industrial users will not readily substitute other materials for silver in a price rise. If the price of silver jumps significantly, they will be more inclined to build inventories.

When the inevitable silver shortage hits, it will be only a matter of time before industrial users try to protect themselves from delays and price increases. They will attempt to build inventories of silver. You don't risk the shutdown of an assembly line for want of a single, low-cost component.

As industrial users try to immunize themselves from assembly line shutdowns, extraordinary demand will make the supply tighter.

This is how panics occur. The price of palladium rose to over $1,100 an ounce because industrial users panicked and built inventories. Silver is used in many more applications than palladium. That increases the chance that silver users will panic and try to build inventories. If a panic does develop, there is only one known cure - it must burn itself out at extremely high prices.

ANOTHER BOMBSHELL

There are many forms of paper silver where the real silver does not exist, including pool accounts, leveraged accounts and bank silver certificates.

These accounts offer cheaper commissions and storage fees (since there is no real silver backing). I would estimate that there is well over a billion ounces of silver held in this form, perhaps by Swiss banks alone.

The issuers have use of "free" money, which is highly profitable to them as long as silver doesn't move up in price. But when silver moves up decisively, the issuers are, in essence, holding a short position. This is just another one of the many unique reasons for a historical blow off in the price of silver. At some point, with a high enough price of silver, the issuers can panic and try to limit losses. The only way to limit their losses is to buy silver. The net effect of the cumulative short positions in silver amount to a hydrogen bomb, on top of an atomic bomb, on top of a neutron bomb.

UN panel verdict allows India access to Hariabhanga gas reserves, Dhaka gets 20 K sqkm EEZ

A historic development has taken place a few days ago regarding the 40-year-old India-Bangladesh maritime dispute, reported from the judicial precincts of The Hague in the Netherlands, which has not been as intensely reported and commented upon in Indian media as it deserved.

On 7 July a United Nations Tribunal awarded nearly four-fifth of the maritime territory to Bangladesh giving that country control of almost 20,000 square kilometers of the disputed area that expands to 25,000 square kilometers in the Bay of Bengal.

This is the second successive diplomatic victory for Bangladesh over its maritime concerns as in 2012 the UN tribunal had resolved the issue after Bangladesh had taken a similar matter with Myanmar to the tribunal.

Hariabhanga bonhomie. AFP

For India too it is a matter of satisfaction and also a diplomatic victory for several reasons. One, the United Nations' Permanent Court of Arbitration in Hague acknowledged India's sovereignty over New Moore Island and grants India concomitant access to the Hariabhanga river.

The disputed region was near the mouth of the Hariabhanga river, an area of huge strategic importance for India in the coming decades. In 2006, India had discovered 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in a creek about 50km to the south of the mouth of the Hariabhanga within the contested region. The Hariabhanga gas reserves are estimated to be almost twice what the entire Krishna-Godavari basin holds.

New Moore Island (called South Talpatti in Bangladesh) has been claimed by both India and Bangladesh ever since it came into being in Bay of Bengal following a cyclone in 1970. The uninhabited island disappeared in March 2010 due to climate change-related issues. Nonetheless, the UN tribunal’s acknowledgment of the Indian sovereignty in the area hands over considerable strategic leverage to India. That is because the region is said to be rich in oil and natural gas reserves. Now India can legally explore and exploit the natural resources in this area.

The second reason is equally important for India. While it is true that Bangladesh has ‘gained’ close to twenty thousand square kilometers in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), India has reasons to be happy as the award has split the area in question in favour of India which is significantly closer to India’s claim than to that of Bangladesh.

Thirdly, this is good news for millions of Indian fishermen in West Bengal and Odisha as well as Bangladeshi fishermen as the settlement opens up miles of unchallenged open sea that was not available to them in past four decades. This stretch of the sea has been used primarily for transit and both India and Bangladesh had been preventing each other from using it for any other purpose, particularly fishing. Fishermen from both sides would thus get a bounty at a time when fish near the coast had depleted considerably, forcing them to go further out to sea entailing more costs in terms of money and time.

Over and above these reasons there is a huge diplomatic take-away for both India and Bangladesh from the historic UN tribunal award.

The closure of this long-pending dispute, wherein both the sides fell short of their expectations and yet got many things to cheer about, paves the way for a more intense bilateral cooperation. It is a win-win situation for both the sides as articulated by their foreign ministries.

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali described the tribunal's award as a "victory for both countries…and a win-win situation for the peoples of Bangladesh and India". Ali took care to laud India’s role in this episode at a press conference in Dhaka, saying thus: "We commend India for its willingness to resolve this matter peacefully by legal means and for its acceptance of the tribunal's judgment."

India too welcomed the development and MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin remarked: "The settlement of the maritime boundary will further enhance mutual understanding and goodwill between India and Bangladesh by bringing to closure a long-pending issue. This paves the way for the economic development of this part of the Bay of Bengal, which will be beneficial to both countries."

Now that both the sides have made substantial gains and ended a major bilateral dispute as per the international law, it should spur them on to go for an amicable settlement of two other major pending issues: land boundary agreement and Teesta water sharing.

Gone: sea larger than Bengal UN tribunal awards Dhaka marine chunk

New Delhi, July 8: India has lost to Bangladesh a swathe of sea larger than the area of Bengal in a landmark ruling by a UN tribunal after decades of tug-of-war rooted in the Partition of 1947.

The UN’s Permanent Court of Arbitration has awarded Bangladesh 106,613sqkm of a total of 172, 220sqkm that according to New Delhi was under dispute but should belong to India. The award prompted a dissenting signature from New Delhi’s representative on the tribunal but the emissary was outvoted.

The ruling at The Hague settles a maritime boundary India has haggled over with Pakistan from 1947 to 1971, and then with Bangladesh.

Officially, both nations welcomed the settlement.

“We respect the verdict of the tribunal and are in the process of studying the award and its full implications,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said today. He addedd that the settlement would “enhance mutual understanding and goodwill” by bringing to a closure “a long-pending issue.”

The verdict denies Indian fishermen access to the part of the sea lost to Bangladesh. It also means India cannot tap natural gas and oil reserves predicted in that region by the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.

The contentions used by the five-member bench that heard the case have also upset Indian negotiators, apart from leaving sections of the foreign policy establishment worried about opposition from state governments on the eastern coast.

“This is very honestly a ruling that is not good for India,” a senior Indian official involved in the negotiations told The Telegraph. “The award of the area to Bangladesh is irrational in our view, and the arguments used to justify the decision quite frankly border on the absurd.”

The ruling was delivered to the governments of India and Bangladesh on Monday, with the strict orders that it could not be made public for another day. Today, the court published its 168-page verdict online, allowing the two governments to discuss the ruling publicly.

The dispute involves the demarcation of a maritime boundary between India and Bangladesh, which was East Pakistan before its independence in 1971.

Delineating the boundary was important because it defines both the sovereign maritime territory of each of the two neighbours — extending 12 nautical miles off the coast — and an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) that continues till 200 nautical miles into the sea.

Although a nation does not have territorial sovereignty over the EEZ — ships from other countries can enter those waters freely — that particular country alone can exploit the zone for economic gains. In the Bay of Bengal, India’s state-owned ONGC has been exploring for oil and gas since 2005.

After multiple rounds of unsuccessful negotiations, the government of current Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina approached the UN arbitration court in 2009.

India agreed to join the tribunal’s proceedings and nominated Pemmaraja Srinivasa Rao as its member to the five-judge bench hearing the case. Bangladesh’s nominee on the panel was Ghana’s Thomas A. Mensah. German international law veteran Rudiger Wolfrum headed the bench.

New Delhi’s arguments were made, among others, by the then attorney general, G.E. Vahanvati.

India insisted that only the area just south of Bangladesh and Bengal ought to be considered while demarcating the maritime boundary. This area amounted to 172,220sqkm — just under twice Bengal’s area of 88,752sqkm.

But Bangladesh demanded that parts of the sea close to the Odisha and Andhra Pradesh border, too, must be considered as disputed territory.

The UN bench not only agreed to Bangladesh’s demand but added even more area, defining the disputed region as a whopping 406,833sqkm — around the combined area of Uttar Pradesh, Bengal and Assam.

This definition extended the dispute to coastal waters running all the way down Odisha’s coast till Sandy Point near Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. Rao dissented, but was outvoted 4-to-1, the verdict report shows.

India then won a small battle against Bangladesh in the hearings — convincing the bench to accept a point on the map in the shallow seas just south of the Sunderbans that New Delhi insisted should mark the start of the boundary delineation. This victory allowed India to win a tiny island known as New Moore or South Talpatti that some satellite images suggest may have drowned in recent years.

But New Delhi soon lost a bigger battle, over the geographic method the arbitration court would use to mark out the boundary.

Dhaka had suggested that the judges take a compass and pencil, and mark the maritime boundary by dividing the angle created by the abutting Indian and Bangladesh coasts equally.

In effect, this “180-degree principle” meant drawing a straight line down from the starting point of the demarcation, to a point where both nations accept that their EEZ ends.

India contended that the equal-angle principle could not be adopted because curves further down its neighbour’s coast would effectively give Bangladesh greater sea territory than was fair.

India suggested an “equidistant-line” principle, under which the boundary marker at each point in the sea would be the spot equidistant from the nearest point on the Indian and Bangladesh coasts. This line, unlike the one proposed by Bangladesh, would twist and turn with the curves on the two coasts.

The arbitration tribunal initially accepted India’s equidistant principle but applied it only to the part of the sea very close to the coast. For the rest of the disputed area, it tweaked Bangladesh’s suggestion, only tilting the straight boundary line Bangladesh had proposed slightly to the east, at an angle of 177 degrees — or three degrees from the vertical.

The maritime boundary defined by the UN court justified its order by calculating the ratio of the total areas it awarded to India and Bangladesh.

But the ratio — India was awarded 300,220sqkm of the area, almost thrice Bangladesh’s 106,613sqkm — is misleading, according to Indian officials. They said the maritime territory demarcated to New Delhi included a large chunk along its eastern seaboard that was never really under dispute.

For Bangladesh, the victory is the second of its kind in quick succession — it won a UN arbitration battle against Myanmar in 2012, also over the demarcation of its maritime boundary with that nation.